WELCOME TO DREAM WORLD (RANGEEN SAPNON KI DUNIYA) – RAMOJI FILM CITY

WELCOME TO DREAM WORLD (RANGEEN SAPNON KI DUNIYA) – RAMOJI FILM CITY

This time I am writing my experience at Ramoji film City – Hyderabad. It is the World’s Largest Film studio complex and is certified under Guinness Book of World records as a world’s largest Film studio.

ramoji entrance

In the month of March 2012 we visited one of our close relative at Hyderabad on a long weekend (i.e. Friday to Sunday). We reached Hyderabad on Friday morning at 0900 hrs and decided to visit Ramoji film city on Saturday.

So on Saturday we plan to visit Ramoji Film City (now onwards referred as RFC). We had taken the private bus which ply between City and RFC from Madhapur bus stop at 0830 hrs. The bus reaches RFC at 1000 hrs.

There are two different types of tickets available for people visiting RFC. The one is general Guided tour. The entry fee for this package was Rs 600/- for adults and Rs 500/- for children aged between 3 -12 years. The other package was Ramoji star experience (A sort of VIP treatment package ). The details of this package we can get on the website itself (www.ramojifilmcity.com) The adult ticket for this package is Rs 1350/- where as for Children it is Rs 1100/-. We opted for general guided tour. Once you have purchased your ticket you can again sit in your bus or vehicle and the bus will take you inside the main complex. From the Ticket counter, again the main attraction is far off. It takes around 15- 20 minutes to reach there.

So our bus has dropped us at the main entrance and instructed us to come back at the same place at 1740 hrs. Generally these many hours are enough to cover any tourist point, but for Ramoji film city this is not enough. I repeat these many hours are not enough and you actually have to rush especially if you are going there with kids or aged family members.
So when you are planning to visit RFC , make sure you reach there at 0900 morning. The timings for RFC are

Ticket Booking Hours: 0900 hrs to 1400 hrs

Internal Tour Timings: 1000 hrs to 1630 hrs

This will also give you an opportunity to see their opening ceremony which we had missed as we reached Ticket counter at 1000hrs.

Once you enter RFC , don’t carried away by the attractive signages , or bus tour or Fundustan which is right there at the entrance. Start your RFC experience with the shows they conduct. Do not hesitate to ask the helpdesk about show timings and plan your show timings in such a manner that you cover all shows in one go so that you need not to come again to that portion by walking all the way from one place to another.

RFC is very big area and it requires you to walk a lot. We made a mistake by entering into Fundustan first. And my kid was so much engrossed in fundustan that we missed out to even see what is mentioned in the pamphlet given along with the entrance ticket. The pamphlet gives you detailed map of RFC, the show timings as well as Restaurants details. So I will write my experience with Fundustan first.

Also I would like to mention that I am so much impressed with RFC that this time my post would be more of pictures than written details. Unfortunately our camera had stopped working after few photographs taken at Fundustan so I am putting photographs taken from RFC website with proper permission from RFC Administration to use their website photographs in my post.

a) Fundustan and Kid Zone – It is on the right side of the entrance i.e Tour starting point.It is a fun and play area for kids as well as for adults. It has many places of fun and play like kettle, m scary house etc, dancing fountain, video game parlour, toyland, adventure land, Borasura (Theme walkthrough).Borasura is a scary house with different scary features/walkway. It is a real fun for kids as well for big folks. It is also a good spot where you can take your kid pics with the statues/ huge structures. For e.g Huge Bal Hamuman statue, Ravan with 10 heads, caterpillar, Octopus, Ship, Kettle, Huts etc.

Fundustan

TOYLAND

Fundustan

Fundustan

So somehow we convinced our kid to move out from that place and we came out. Outside the Fundustan, the bus stop was there, from where the Vintage royal bus takes you to all the Gardens and Film sets. So we contacted the nearest Guest relation person and he suggested we should first see the Shows that are going on and it runs on particular timings. I would like to appreciate the Guest relations persons. All of them are so friendly, so cooperative and they are the best person to guide you inside the RFC.

It was now 1130 hrs and we were told that the second show for spirit show is at 1200 hrs. So we rushed towards Eureka where all Entertainment shows were going on.

b) Eureka – It is on the left side of the entrance, again left of Mauryan lane. So we entered in the big hall (Capacity approx 1000 people) with a chilled air conditioning running inside. Here one more tip , reach at the show atleast 15 – 20 minutes before show timing so that you will get a place to sit, else you have to stand and watch the wonderful live show by expert dancers and acrobatic performers. I do not want to explain it in more as I wanted to keep these shows as a surprise show . But one thing, all these shows are must watch show, so do not miss it. The spirit show will take your complete one hour.

After coming out of Spirit show we thought of taking Lunch, but we had less time and on the other side the other shows were running. So we had just picked up some food items which we can eat while walking and while in a queue. From there we were again guided by RFC staff to go and watch movie making show. It’s a three fold show and they share with you how film industry people make movies. It also has taken almost 30 minutes. This is also must watch show. In this they first shoot the scene by casting person from the audience itself.Then they add sound to the scene that too again from the person from the audience and last mixing of shooting and sound.

After we had finished we were again guided to enter in a complex (FILMY DUNIYA) where they exhibits toys and sets of different countries movie world. They take you around in a toy train inside the museum. It is 15 minutes show, but to be in queue and to get a train again takes around 15 – 20 minutes extra i.e waiting time is approximately 30 minutes.

Then the last one visited by us was Ramoji tower. It is a simulator show and must watch show. Too good. Don’t miss it.

This all finished by 1545 hrs and we realised that we had missed the most important Stunt Show ..oops. But I had heard a lot about stunt show , so please plan you tour so that you don’t miss this also.

SPIRIT OF RFC

STUNT SHOW

c) Gardens and Silver screen sets : So after we had finished viewing our shows it was almost 1600 hrs and we had only 1.5 hour left with us to see the Gardens. So we quickly went to Bus stop to catch the bus. Again the guide in a bus was so good, so friendly with everyone, knows all three languages (English, Hindi and Telugu). But 1600 hrs bus timing is the last bus timings and you are not allowed to get down and see the gardens and the sets. There are approximately 120 gardens, so many beautiful fountains and so many readily available film sets like railway station ,airport , Foreign country , village, Hospital , Jail , Highway , streets , Raj darbaar etc.The guide was explaining us about all the gardens, sets, which all movie shot at RFC (The recent one was Dirty Pictures song in the Leg garden and Dreamum song from movie Aiyaa).

CHARISMA GARDEN

TRAIN WITH TYRES

RAILWAY STATION SET

JAPANESE GARDEN

MAZE GARDEN

LEG GARDEN

RAJ DARBBAR FILM SET

ILLUMINATED ANGEL FOUNTAIN

The sets are so wonderfully designed. For eg In one building with four face (sides), one face of a building would be lets say Heroine house, then the other side would be hero’s house. The third side would be Hospital building and the fourth side would be college building.

UMBRELLA GARDEN

ILLUMINATED HAWA MAHAL GARDEN

ILLUMINATED JAPANESE GARDEN

The hospital building side is mostly used in which they change the name board e.g Hospital board or May be police headquarter etc.

There is also one structure which is just a frame structure and can be used for shooting building on fire. They will give the outer casing of the building and set fire on it to shoot building on fire.

The railway station , the airport , the bus stand name keeps on changing as per the movie requirement.

The temple set is just a temple building without idol and as per movie requirement the GOD idols are placed in a temple for shooting.

TEMPLE SET

The central jail gate is also good. It is just a wall with a central jail board and a gate for prisoner to come out. Again the Jail name keeps on changing as per movie requirement.

CENTRAL JAIL SET

There is one garden which replicate Vrindavan garden and Mughal garden. From outside it looks like Mughal garden and from inside it is like Vrindavan garden.

There are several settings in the studios which lead the visitors from streets of the Mauryan Empire or Mughal Empire or even the American old west streets. There’s also the famous Hollywood sign displayed on the hills at the studios.

MAURYAN LANE

MUGHALS FORT SET

In all it was a great experience to see all these sets.

Thus we came back to the main entrance at 1715 hrs. Again picked up some food stuff (There are food counters at the tour point ) as we all are so hungry and so so …tired. At around 1730 hrs a group of Manipuri dancers came and they had performed beautiful Manipuri dance as a part of closing ceremony.

This finishes our day tour at RFC and our buses were waiting outside to take us back to the city. And we were not very happy to come out of RFC and We are again looking for an opportunity to go again and see the Gardens and stunt shows which we had missed out.

Before I finish my post I want to mention following points:

As per my view you should see points as below:

a) Movie magic (ACTION) – Making of movie
b) Ramoji Tower
c) Filmy Duniya
d) Stunt Show
e) Spirit of Ramoji

All these shows timings are available in their website as well the pamphlet given along with ticket.
Also keep extra time while you as every show has almost 15- 20 minutes waiting time in a long – long Queue.

Once you are done with all the show, then you can have Quick Lunch in any of the five restaurants or from the food counters inside the film city. (Ideally it (Shows and Lunch) should get finished by 1300 hrs)

Then you should proceed to Bus stop. The bus will take you across all the Gardens as well as sets.

Once you have seen gardens and clicked photographs , then you can come back to Tour start point and can have a look at Fundustan.(Kid’s Dream World).

If the priority are kids while visiting RFC then your tour inside should be other way round i.e. start with Fundustan, Bus tour and then Shows.

At the end do not forget to see their closing ceremony.

Important Points:

a) Do not carry any outside food, as you will waste your time in baggage room for collecting and picking your stuff.
b) Rain dance is available inside the fundustan, so you can carry your swimming costume, alternatively costumes are also available on rent inside the RFC.

Positives :

a) Perfect Housekeeping
b) Well mannered, well behaved staff.
c) Good for photography
d) No language problem, staff and guide both speaks English, Hindi and Telugu.

Negatives :

a) I find time very less to cover full RFC satisfactorily. The entry and exit time should get changed to 0800 hrs to 1900 hrs. But I do understand the burden on RFC staff as it is not easy to handle thousands of visitors’ everyday.
b) Also we can’t see RFC when it is illuminated. It looks wonderful.

ILLUMINATED HAWA MAHAL

ILLUMINATED HAWA MAHAL

ALAMPANA RESTAURANT

HAPPY ENTERTAINING AND HAPPY TRAVELLING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Courtesy:  Ghumakkar.com

About Abhee K

Abheeruchi Kanungo has written 27 posts at Ghumakkar.

I am a Civil Engineer by Profession , but loves to travel...I had not traveled too many places but very few (Approx around 20 -25 destination ) which I had visited ,I just love those places and remember each and every experience I had at all these places.Also my trips are all very economical trip and these experience would surely help others to make their trip comfortable and easy...So I am here to share my experience...